The invention relates to an electro-acoustical transducer arrangement for underwater antennas and which is comprised of a plurality of hydrophones which are to be arranged at equal distances in a linear array (vertically above each other) on a support, and which are provided with connecting lines for their electrical connection.
Such electro-acoustical transducer arrangements, generally referred to as staves, are fastened on cylinder-shaped or horseshoe-shaped supports for the purpose of passive acoustical locating in the frequency range between 1 and 12 kHz and as a whole form a receiving antenna or receiver base on the support which, depending on the structural type, is called a cylinder base or cylindrical hydrophone array (CHA) or horseshoe base or conformal array. Cylinder bases permit locating over a panoramic angle of 360.degree., while horseshoe bases, wherein the support is preferably formed by the ship's bow itself, permit locating over a somewhat restricted sector.
In known cylinder bases the hydrophones of the transducer arrangements or staves are individually fastened on a cylinder steel support via decoupling elements used for decoupling structure-borne sound, and their connecting lines in the form of insulated cables are individually connected with the receiver device. In this case the connecting cable of, for example, 96 staves of a cylinder base are combined in a cable harness and brought to the receiver unit through a water-pressure-resistant duct. Panels of polyurethane (PUR) foam are additionally attached on the steel support to improve the front-to-back ratio of the transducer arrangement. Receiver bases put together from such transducer arrangements have a heavy dead weight, great natural resonance and require a very large amount of time for their assembly.